X
- 2017
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 44 m
- 2017
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 44 m
Summary Looking for any way to get away from the life and town he was born into, Tripp (Lucas Till), a high school senior, builds a Monster Truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. After an accident at a nearby oil-drilling site displaces a strange and subterranean creature with a taste and a talent for speed, Tripp may have just found the k...
Directed By: Chris Wedge
Written By: Derek Connolly, Matthew Robinson, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger
- 2017
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 44 m
- 2017
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 44 m
Monster Trucks
41
5.4
Where to Watch
Summary Looking for any way to get away from the life and town he was born into, Tripp (Lucas Till), a high school senior, builds a Monster Truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. After an accident at a nearby oil-drilling site displaces a strange and subterranean creature with a taste and a talent for speed, Tripp may have just found the k...
Directed By: Chris Wedge
Written By: Derek Connolly, Matthew Robinson, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
41
22% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
48% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
30% Negative
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
41
22% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
48% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
30% Negative
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
It’s an eco-fable devoid of didactic overkill, delivered with energy, winking mischief, unobtrusive effects and a skilled cast.
The idea is unabashedly silly, yet Monster Trucks is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 66 User Ratings
5.4
38% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
36% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
26% Negative
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 66 User Ratings
5.4
38% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
36% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
26% Negative
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
this movie is really crazy and the vehicle is a monster truck literally.....
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This is a surprisingly entertaining movie about monsters, trucks, and respect. Most of the action involved the "Monster Truck" Creech in vehicle chases with other trucks, pickups, and even a huge super dumptruck. Recommended for family viewing, this is a kid-friendly and feel-good movie that teaches good values.
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On first glance, Monster Trucks looks so-bad-it’s-hilarious, and it’s a bit heartening to report that it’s not quite that. The monsters are cute and charming, the production value is high, and the trio of Lennon, Levy and Lowe bring just enough quirk to brighten up the humorous beats.
As much as you may find yourself rooting for the film, it’s too blandly directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age) to repay the favour with anything out of the ordinary.
Objectively ridiculous but mostly fun, this is better than you could have predicted given the title but squarely aimed at a young and undiscerning audience.
The scenes where Creech and co are outracing the Terravex death squads are playful and inventive enough to provide a glimpse of what this movie could have been if it weren’t so remarkably bad in most other respects.
The film cartoonishly admonishing Big Oil while hypocritically fetishizing the gas-guzzling appetite of a cute and cuddly machine-creature hybrid.
One of the best things about the 1988 comedy “Big” was Tom Hanks’s main character, a kid stuck in an adult’s body who used his playful imagination to rise through the ranks of a toy company. At one point, he pitches the idea of a robot toy that turns into a bug, arguing that kids will prefer something that’s both unexpected and fun.
The premise of “Monster Trucks” is in that same spirit. What would happen, the film wonders, if cute, otherworldly creatures operated hulking cars (which already appeal to children)? The idea is unabashedly silly, yet “Monster Trucks” is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.
Lucas Till plays Tripp, a sullen high school student who dreams of escaping the North Dakota hamlet where he lives. Tripp has a part-time job in a junkyard, where, during an evening shift, he makes a startling discovery: a giant, oil-guzzling monster with tentacles is hiding there, scrounging through scrapped vehicles for any drop of oil it can find. The monster was once living deep beneath Earth’s surface until a greedy oil executive named Reece (Rob Lowe) destroyed its underground habitat. Tripp nicknames the monster Creech (short for Creature), becoming buddies with it, since it is smart and has big, dopey eyes and a friendly disposition. When the monster takes refuge inside the metal body of the vintage pickup truck Tripp is restoring, the boy sees an opportunity. He rigs the truck so that Creech can serve as its de facto engine.
In addition to Lowe, “Monster Trucks” features many familiar character actors in supporting roles. Danny Glover, Amy Ryan, Barry Pepper and Thomas Lennon all make appearances, dialing down their screen personas so that younger audiences can focus on the plot. Since the oil company wants to destroy the monsters — the presence of a new species would mean they must halt drilling operations — the film turns into a contest of wills between Tripp and the evil corporation. Help comes from unexpected sources: Lennon plays a scientist who joins the good guys, and Jane Levy plays Meredith, the plucky if stereotypical girl next door. Screenwriter Derek Connolly shrewdly uses archetypes for many characters, while also leaving room for modest surprises. Motivations may not be complex exactly, but they bear a satisfying resemblance to actual human behavior.
The special effects strike an admirable balance between the cutesy and the creepy. Creech, for example, is less humanoid than E.T., but the CGI character designers give him personality and heft. More importantly, Wedge uses the monster-in-a-truck conceit as a springboard for some imaginative chase sequences. With Creech inside, Tripp’s truck can jump, tilt and even climb walls. Unlike Michael Bay of “Transformers” fame, Wedge shoots these sequences carefully, so that we always understand where Tripp is in relation to his pursuers. Camera placement and editing are coherent, not chaotic. (Note to more “serious” action filmmakers: You could learn a thing or two from this film’s respect for spatial elegance.)
“Monster Trucks” is far from deep. The good guys don’t experience major life lessons, and the comeuppance meted out to the bad guys is only perfunctory. But the conflict is simple enough so that kids can recognize what’s at stake. Broad gags are thrown in alongside sly jokes — including asides that suggest that the filmmakers know that the 26-year-old Till is way too old to play a teenager.
This is a film where adults needn’t count the minutes until the end credits. “Monster Trucks” does not rely on bright, flashy colors to maintain the attention of the intended audience. Long after the novelty of the premise runs out of gas, it’s sheer moviemaking craft that fuels this effects-driven action-family hybrid.
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Very intentional film, but could not deliver!
There are lots of similarities with other films, maybe not directly. In todays world, it became practice to give kids (and sometimes for women) their own version of what meant for only grownups. So there's no use whining about that. Because those who does might not be the target audience. This is I think purely for kids, otherwise it would have not got bold PG, but like usual for any film, I gave it a try. Even though it's not original, somewhat I enjoyed watching it.
The story was in usual pattern that opened with an intro, then moving to unleash the long trapped ancient creatures into the human society. One becomes friend with it and a few starting to hunt it with the rest are as the neutral or unaware of it. There's nothing unpredictable in it. And so the tale comes to halt with a finale where maximum push was given, but overall it fails to impress on the average expectation.
Good title, good idea, even the graphics were not bad, but not good enough stunts with okay performances. I feel it could have become a good television series than the film. So they should scrap the idea if they have one for a sequel and instead make a shift to television. Other than what I thought, this is a good entertainer for little kids. So it should be watched by them more than their counterparts.
5½/10
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The Film won't win any awards, but it's definitely not a bad movie. It's silly, crazy, weird, and mostly made for younger kids, but once you realize this, it becomes very enjoyable to sit through. The characters are fun and bizarre, the "creature" and overall film is original, and the action is incredibly unrealistic, but boarderline exciting to watch. The plot is fairly thin and the whole time I was left to wonder where all the parents were, but overall, it was worth the ticket price and a great Film to keep the kids, and some adults, amused.
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Yeah. This movie's bad. But... is it even worth me getting angry over it? It's just bland, cliche'd, and unoriginal. Not terrible, but definitely a dud.
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Production Company
Paramount Pictures,
Nickelodeon Movies,
Disruption Entertainment,
FortyFour Studios,
Paramount Animation
Release Date Jan 13, 2017
Duration 1 h 44 m
Rating PG
Tagline On January 13, meet Creech
Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
• 2 Nominations
